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A CONSULTANT who successfully appealed against a conviction of gross negligence manslaughter of a patient from Co Armagh has been cleared by a medical tribunal of misconduct allegations.

David Sellu (70) was jailed in November 2013 for two-and-a-half years over the death of father-of-six James Hughes, from Armagh, but following his release 15 months later his conviction was overturned.

The General Medical Council (GMC) later brought disciplinary matters against him and claimed that he allowed vital time to "slip by" between diagnosis and surgery on Mr Hughes.

Mr Sellu was accused by the GMC of failing to provide good clinical care in his treatment of Mr Hughes in February 2010, although it was not their case that his actions led to the death.

Retired builder Mr Hughes (66) underwent a knee replacement a week earlier but developed abdominal pain and was transferred to the care of Mr Sellu at Clement Churchill private hospital in Harrow, north London.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), sitting in Manchester, ruled that Mr Sellu did not have a duty to perform surgery on February 11 when it was first suspected that Mr Hughes was suffering from a perforated bowel and he instead requested a CT scan.

The tribunal added it was satisfied that when he received the results of the CT scan the next day he made proactive steps to make immediate arrangements to perform urgent surgery.

It also found there was no evidence that Mr Hughes showed significant signs of deterioration over the afternoon of February 12 before Mr Sellu eventually operated on him that evening.